The present invention relates to a pipe fastener for securing pipes used to supply fuel, brake oil or the like in an automobile, to a body panel such as a body of the automobile.
Several pipe fasteners made of plastic material have been developed for fastening a pipe such as a fuel pipe to a body panel of an automobile (see, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 07-022189) contributing to cost saving. Further, as to a fuel pipe and a brake pipe, replacing a rubber pipe with a nylon pipe has reduced cost. The pipe made of nylon, however, has caused a disadvantage that a pipe is electrically charged by a friction between the fuel and the pipe during supplying the fuel, and thereby the spark is generated on an outer surface of the pipe to eventually produce pinholes in a coating on the pipe surface, or thereby the charged pipe and the fuel repel each other to prevent a smooth supply of the fuel.
In order to solve the problem caused by the above charging of the fuel pipe or the like, Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 04-058683 has suggested using a support member made of electrical conducting resin to support the pipe to discharge the electric charge on the pipe to a body panel. However, this support member must be made of such flexible material as polypropylene containing the electrical conducting material mixed therein so as to be conductive as a whole. Accordingly, the flexibility of the support member disadvantageously makes it difficult to increase an ability to hold the pipe. For example, in case of the pipe fastener illustrated in FIG. 3 of Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 04-058683 mentioned above, the pipe tends to be detached from the fastener under the bumpy condition in an automobile, and it requires a complicated mounting operation, such as entirely surrounding the pipe, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 thereof.
In case of the pipe fastener illustrated in Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 07-022189 mentioned above, it is molded from tough (or rigid) and flexible plastic material such as polyacetal to provide a great holding force and it also exhibits good operation efficiency since a simple operation of only pressing a pipe into a grip could secure the pipe.
Therefore, what had to be done was to make tough (rigid) but also flexible plastic material such as polyacetal be conductive, but since polyacetal resin added with electrical conducting material turned to be too rigid and brittle, desired holding force could not be obtained.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a pipe fastener which allows a pipe to be mounted to a body panel by an easy operation and also provides sufficient holding force, while electric charge on a charged pipe can be discharged to the body panel.
The object of the present invention mentioned above has been achieved by a pipe fastener for fastening a pipe such as a fuel pipe to a body panel of a vehicle by engaging with a stud fixedly connected to the body panel, comprising: a pipe holder of rigid plastic material including a base having a stud receiving hole formed therein and a pipe grip integrally molded with the base for holding the pipe by pressing the pipe into an opening of the grip, the stud receiving hole having an engagement pawl formed therein for engagement with a received stud to be secured; and an electrical connection member of electrical conducting material adapted to be attached to the pipe holder by an engagement means formed in the pipe holder; and wherein the electrical connecting member includes a pipe contact portion extending to the pipe grip into contact with the pipe held in the pipe grip when the electrical connection member is attached to the pipe holder by the engagement means; and a stud contact portion adapted to contact with the stud received in the stud receiving hole, so that the pipe in contact with the pipe contact portion is electrically connected to the body panel through the stud. Accordingly, there is provided the pipe fastener which is made of material having sufficient strength and provides an easy mounting operation and sufficient holding force, while allowing the electric charges which are accumulated on the pipe, to be discharged to the body panel through the electrical connection member, thus to solve the problem accompanied with the accumulated electric charges on the pipe.
In the above pipe fastener, the pipe contact portion of the electrical connection member may be made to have a pipe receiving surface extending from the surface opposite to the opening side of the pipe grip to the opening of the pipe grip, and the stud contact portion of the electrical connection member may be made to have a stud engagement hole adapted to be aligned to engage with the side of the stud which projects from the stud receiving hole. The engagement means can be an engagement leg standing on a surface opposite to the opening of the pipe grip, and the electrical connection member may be provided with an engagement hole to receive the engagement leg into engagement therewith, so that the electrical connection member is attached to the pipe holder by aligning the engagement hole of the electrical engagement member with the engagement leg and pressing the member to the leg. Further, the pipe holder may be made of tough and flexible resin such as polyacetal, and the electrical connection member is made of resin such as electrical conducting material mixed polyacetal resin. The pipe contacting the pipe contact portion may be a fuel pipe. The electrical connection member may be removably attached to the pipe holder.
Further, the present invention provides an alternative pipe fastener for fastening a pipe such as a fuel pipe to a body panel, comprising: a pipe holder of rigid plastic material including a base to be secured to the body panel and a pipe grip integrally molded with the base for holding the pipe by pressing the pipe into an opening of the grip; and an electrical connection member of electrical conducting material adapted to be attached to the pipe holder by an engagement means formed in the pipe holder; and wherein the electrical connecting member includes a pipe contact portion extending to the pipe grip into contact with the pipe held in the pipe grip when the electrical connection member is attached to the pipe holder by the engagement means; and a body panel contact portion extending from the pipe holder fixed to the body panel to a direct contact position where the body panel contact portion comes in direct contact with the body panel, so that the pipe in contact with the pipe contact portion is directly electrically connected to the body panel. Accordingly, there is also provided the pipe fastener which is made of material having sufficient strength and provides an easy mounting operation and sufficient holding force, while allowing the electric charges which are accumulated on the pipe, to be discharged to the body panel through the electrical connection member, thus to solve the problem accompanied with the accumulated electric charges. In this embodiment, the body panel contact portion may be made to have a brim portion adapted to be clamped between said body panel and said base secured to said body panel.
According to the present invention, a pipe holder can be made of material having sufficient strength so as to allow easy mounting operation and to provide sufficient holding force, while electric charges accumulated on a pipe can be discharged to a body panel by an electrical connection means, so that a problem accompanied by the charges to be accumulated on the pipe can be dissolved, and further, the pipe can be attached to the body panel with easy mounting operation while keeping a sufficient holding force.